Well, my little office space is coming along. I’m excited to share it with you very soon. But, since I’ve done so much sourcing and researching for products, I thought I’d share with you what I’ve found. I’ve already shared some great wall-mounted desk options, now let’s look at a few stylish chair options as well. 

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I end up spending way more time then I want to at my computer, so I’m ready for a “real” chair. my back and hips are tired of countless hours in a kitchen chair. But, it turns out finding a stylish and comfortable desk chair is not easy. Well, it’s easy if you want to spend lots and lots of money. But, I was in the market for one somewhere way less then $400. And while comfort is king, my little desk is in a main traffic area of our house, so I wanted to make sure it had a little style.

I really can’t tell you for sure for sure, if these are all comfortable, because I haven’t sat in all of them. But, I did read lots of reviews and tried to source ones that could be easily returned if they didn’t work out. But, I do think I found some handsome options that won’t break the bank. Spoiler Alert!!! I picked number 8. When I polled folks on IG stories, a few people said that they had this exact chair and then it was sooooo comfortable. And then the very next day, West Elm had a flash sale and I paid only $229 for it!!!!!!! Yep, I’m pumped. It won’t be here for another couple of weeks. But, my next choice would probable by number 2. It feels 100% Scandinavian.

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Do you have a favorite? In true Oleander + Palm fashion, I looked long and hard for an awesome dark green option and a found a few. I feel like leather is a good idea, it should wear well and just look better over time. I’ll keep you posted, but I’m excited for you to see my tiny little hallway office. Stay tuned.

And happy long weekend friends!

Ok, the time has come. I’m ready for a desk space in my home. I’ve been blogging for over 6 years now from a laptop at the kitchen table, on the sofa, or even in bed. Sometimes that flexibility is nice, but lately my back has been telling me that a proper desk and chair might be a good idea. Yes, I do have a studio, but honestly most of my computer screen time is in the evenings once the kids are in bed. So, I really don’t want to pack up and head back to the studio.

While our house is not small, there isn’t an extra room for home office. So, My place is to find a wall mounted desk for our hallway. It’s actually a pretty good sized area and the wall is about 48 inches wide, so I can get a pretty good sized desk in there. The only issue is that the intake vent for the AC and heater is in the floor right under where I’d like to put a desk. So, take the furniture off the floor and mounting it on the wall seems like the best idea. The end of my laptop’s life is pretty somewhere in the near future, so I’m hoping to make the move to a desktop. I’m ready for a bigger monitor, especially when I’m editing pictures.

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Because I just don’t have the motivation right now to build something custom for myself, I’m on the hunt for a great wall mounted desk I can just buy. I’ve rounded up 8 pretty great options. Number 2 is definitely out of my budget, but it’s pretty dang gorgeous in person. Number 4 feels the most like me, but I think I might need a little more storage. Number 5 is really interesting, but it’s just a little too wide for my space, but I included it because I thought it might work for one of you. Number 7 might be the winner, it’s priced right and the scale of this piece works really well for our hallway.

Is there one that stands out to you?

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 / 5 // 6 // 7 // 8

And if you are just looking for a desk and don’t need to have a computer on it, this one is gorgeous. And actually there are a lot of great pull down options out there. They just can’t hold a desktop computer and that’s what I need at this point.

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Anyone else looking to create a little home office without a bedroom to spare?

Next up, I’m on the hunt for a comfortable, stylish office chair. Does that exist? I mean it does, but really I can’t spend $3000. I’m on the hunt for one somewhere way below $400.

It’s really hard to believe, but we have been in this new house a year now. And honestly we have no regrets. I’m not saying we aren’t a tiny bit broke and sometimes overwhelmed by all the updates that need to be done, but really feeling a little poor and always have projects to work on is kind the nature of owning an old house. More then mostly, we just love all the extra space we have. With two teenagers and one very busy 5 year old, we needed to spread out just a little bit more.

One thing we didn’t anticipate with a two story house, was struggling to get wifi reception to every room in the house. The kids tend to do there homework and video game fun upstairs. But, often the wifi ended up being spotty and frustrating. Our house isn’t huge, but it is an old house, with lots of doors and compartmentalized rooms. We also have a guesthouse in our backyard. It is detached to the main house. But, guests need wifi as well.

But, I’m so happy to announce that we have a solution to our crummy wifi. We installed the eero Home WiFi System in our house a couple weeks ago, and EVERYONE is happy, even the guests out in our guesthouse. I am so impressed with the eero, in under 10 minutes, wifi woes were a thing of the past. No more pesky buffering wheel, WiFi dead zones, and the dreaded reset button in this house.

And it’s pretty, sleek white beacons blend seamlessly into our home.

The eero plugs into your modem and then, following the app, you will be guided through setup and placement. We placed an eero Beacon, upstairs in Dylan’s room and another one in our guesthouse. The Beacons simply plug into the wall outlets and you are done.

Before, our modem was located in the living room, which was great if you were in that room. But, as you can see, with lots of doors, rooms and a second story, it just wasn’t working well. Now instead of using a single WiFi router in one room of the home, we’ve placed an eero and a couple eero Beacons throughout our home. They’ve formed a mesh WiFi network that blankets every nook and cranny in fast, reliable WiFi.

Now that we have the three eero beacons throughout our house, I can literally be anywhere inside or outside of our house with my phone or laptop and work uninterrupted. Friends, I really can’t speak highly enough about this system, it has really made working from home so much easier. It’s a must-have in this modern age, as far as I’m concerned.

I have a special offer for O+P readers, enter the code OLEANDER receive free overnight shipping with the purchase of an eero system! (Be sure to select overnight shipping upon checkout.)

This post is sponsored by eero, thank you for supporting the companies that help make this blog possible. 

Our laundry room is definitely one room in our home that is used multiple times daily, but never really pictured on the blog. We are a family of 5, hence the loads and loads of laundry, but on top of that, we have a guesthouse that we rent out on Airbnb. It has really done well. We have guests staying with us almost every night of the week. So ya, besides trying to keep up with 3 kids’ dirtying clothes, I’m washing large loads of white sheets, towels, and bathmats almost every day! There’s a lot of juggling load priority and making sure I’m home to get the next load started before I need to change the sheets on the guesthouse or get cross county or gymnastics clothes washed for my kids.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you will know that just weeks before selling our old house, we renovated and finished our laundry there. We hadn’t planned on selling the house, and I was tired of having an unfinished laundry room. It’s kind of funny really. We literally finished weeks before closing, so I didn’t even put away anything in the cupboards or get to use and enjoy that space.

In our new house, the laundry room is in the basement. It’s a small, unfinished basement, but I do like having the laundry room a little out of the way. But, right now if really is just cement walls and floors and a washer and dryer sitting side by side. Because I end up spending quite a bit of time down there. I’m dreaming up ways to make this space better. And the first item on my dream list is the new FlexWash + FlexDry duo from Samsung

Ok, I need to get a little appliance geeky with your all. This washer and dryer duo is what housekeeping dreams are made of. The Samsung FlexWash + FlexDry duo features two washers in one and two dryers in one. These are definitely appliances that are meeting the needs of the modern family, instead of the family having to force-fit to the needs of the machine. The FlexWash and FlexDry system allows you to do multiple loads at once. This means I can be washing white linens for the guesthouse in one load and washing Olivia’s gymnastic clothes in another at the same time so that they are ready when it’s time for her lesson.

I put together a little DREAM Laundry Room mood board. Some practical items and some just for looks to keep me inspired and in love with my surroundings, even if I’m doing loads of laundry.

1. Sun Art
2. Hands
3. Kelly Johnston Print
4. Clothes Clips
5. Pom Pom Basket
6. Brass Hangers
7. Wooden Scoop
8. Large Glass Canisters
9. Set of 3 White Planters
10. Brass Mobile
11. Samsung FlexWash + FlexDry
12. Ironing Board Cover
13. Rug
14. Island
15. Laundry Baskets

Can you relate? Is there always a load waiting to be done at your house as well? How much easier would me life be if I could start TWO loads in the morning, get an alert on my phone when the loads are done and then put them in the dryers at the same time? It would be cutting me laundry work load literally in half. I’m always threatening to get a cleaning lady to help me out, but instead I think I might want to invest in the FlexWash + Flex

This post is sponsored by Samsung. Thank you supporting the companies that help make this blog possible.

Today felt like a good day for a round up. I’ve been doing a lot of local design work lately. I’ve got 3 clients that I’ve been helping lately and a lot of what I do for them is just source products that I think they will love. But, in true Oleander + Palm style, I do hunt down a lot of really great deals. So, I thought I should share some of my finds with you as well.

I’m a huge fan of the round coffee table. I like playing with shapes when a style a space and usually living rooms are full of only squares and rectangles. Rugs, sofas, credenzas, and chairs have straight lines and angled corners. A round coffee table gives you a chance to change things up a bit. One of my all time favorite purchases is my West Elm Marble Topped Coffee Table (which is no longer available – so sad). It’s one of my favorite surfaces to style and restyle. This coffee table shows up on my Instagram Feed all the time. So, since I have so much love for my round coffee table, I felt like a should find some great options for you as well. And I can’t believe the prices on some of these super stylish pieces. All 24 coffee tables are under $200 and many are even under $100.

Happy shopping friends, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the prices of these coffee tables.

1. Walnut
2. Brass and Glass
3. Black Metal Tray with Brass Legs
4. Wood with Brass Tip Legs
5. Brass Tray
6. White and Glass
7. White Chunky Legs
8. Tan and Dark Wood
9. Wire and White
10. Rose Gold
11. Black and Brass
12. Woven Rattan
13. Black and Glass
14. White and Wood
15. Black with Geometric Legs
16. Rustic Wood Top
17. Hammered Brass Drum
18. All Black
19. Copper and Black
20. Black Wire
21. White and Walnut
22. Midcentury with Grey Top
23. Grey and Wood
24. Glass Top

I also have a round coffee table outside (it’s #18 in white though). Can you tell it’s really my favorite shape of coffee table?

So, do you have a favorite? I think there’s some real gems in today’s post.

After visiting Sweden last month, I’m definitely convinced that it is ok to bring back sage green. I saw this calm, cool, soft tone in a lot of homes and restaurants. It’s definitely a throw-back color for me and I’m sure many of you. My brides maid’s dresses were sage green in 1998 and our first house had lots of sage green walls.

It’s really such a great color. I consider it almost a neutral. It’s subtle and not overpowering at all. And it looks great with so many other colors. I recently painted a half wall in my studio, and I really love how it came out. I’m trying to decide which room in our house would look good with sage green walls. Maybe the powder room is a good place to start.

I did a little pinterest search and found some really great rooms that use sage green in a fun modern way and don’t feel too 1998. No surprise at all, a lot of these rooms are from Scandinavian homes.

I did a little sage green research for you. This is totally not an ad or even a sponsored post, I just love Sherwin-Williams paints, and it’s the paint store I shop at.  Here’s a few sage green paint colors to consider. The color I used in my studio is the very first one Clary Sage. My studio is very bright, so the color seems lighter once it’s on the wall. But, with any color, you have to try it in the space first. These are just 6 sold sage greens that I was drawn to. Copen Blue feels quite modern and very similar to a lot of the sage tones I saw in Sweden. Maybe this is the color I’ll try in our powder room. And while Artichoke is the darkest in this group, I think it’s my favorite. It’s dark and grounded but still a soft, subtle green in a way. Sage is just that perfect earthy green. It kind of has that pretty pastel feel, but with a little more sophistication.

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So what do you think? Are you ready to throw back? I’m definitely still in love with my white walls, but I think a little sage green could be fun to play with.

So, not only are these made to fit our windows exactly, these amazing Silhouette shades have no cords, no pulls, and no strings. They are controlled completely wirelessly with the Hunter Douglas’s PowerView Motorization. You can control and even schedule the shades to open, shut, and change the light filter from you smart phone, tablet, or remote.

I’ve put together a little video to show you these window treatment masterpieces in action. Photographs don’t do them justice, you need to see these shades moving.

If you’ve ever lived in a house with old windows, you know that they are not the best insulators. When it’s hot in Bakersfield, it’s very HOT! Silhouette’s signature S-Vane is designed to put you in control of the amount of natural light that comes in, with beautiful effects. With no cords or tapes, the sheer facings allow you to view through the vanes to the outside, while maintaining a discreet level of privacy. We live on a somewhat busy main street, so being able to allow light in during the day but still have privacy is a really awesome feature. These shades even protect furniture, floors and artwork from fading with UV  protection.

The PowerView Motorization that is available with Silhouette is a revolutionary new system that automatically raises, lowers, tilts or traverses a single or group of window treatments throughout the day, so you don’t have to. We set up our shades in groups by room. Then, with the PowerView App on our iphones, we created and scheduled Scenes throughout the day. In the very early morning, we set the shades to filter in the light yet still offer privacy. Mid-morning the day is in full swing and we wanted to flood the room with light, so we scheduled them to open all the way. Mid-afternoon, the sun can be a little harsh, so we scheduled the shades to tilt and to filter in a softer light. In the evening, we have the shades scheduled to close a few minutes after sunset.  And on the weekends, you can encourage a slower start, by keeping the space shaded a little longer. It’s complete luxury and we love it!

Hunter Douglas shades even work with smart home devices like our Nest. For example, Nest can sense when you’re away from home and alert the PowerView App to activate a PowerView Scene of your choosing. These can range from Scenes that optimize privacy to those that emphasize home security or energy conservation.

While we really haven’t bought any new furniture at all, this room feels like a brand new space. When we bought this house, one of my favorite things about this space was these gorgeous windows. I’m glad they can finally be shown off.Like I said, we haven’t bought any new pieces, but here’s a look at how the room is coming together. I still want to hang one more frame to the left of the TV, under the wall sconce. But, I think we are off to a good start and it feels like home when you hang familiar pieces on the wall. 

This post is sponsored by Hunter Douglas, thank you for supporting the companies that help make this blog possible.